This invention relates to telephone pay stations and, in particular, to telephone pay stations adapted to permit a caller to place a call anywhere in a given locale for a limited time for a specified amount of money.
Telephone pay stations of the above tyoe and the service provided thereby shall be referred to herein as "call anywhere limited time" pay stations and service, respectively. Telephone companies in various locations have offered this type of service through specifically designated telephone pay stations for some time. Thus, for example, in New York City, telephone pay stations labelled "30 Second Telephones" permit a caller to call any of a variety of locations in New York State for a 30 second time period for $0.25.
These call anywhere limited time pay stations were initially connected into the telephone network through the tip and ring lines emanating from central offices employing electro-mechanical switching equipment and, in particular, equipment known as the No.1 XBar. Since the No.1 XBar had an initial calling period which could be sent at the lowest to 5 minutes, it was necessary to adapt this system to terminate calls at a lesser interval (e.g., as above-indicated, after 30 seconds) so as to be usable with the call anywhere pay stations. With the No.1 XBar system this could be readily accomplished with a timer located in the central office and set to terminate a call at the desired lesser interval.
With the retirement of the No.1 XBar system in favor of the No.1 electrcnic switching system (No.1 ESS), which is program controlled, the ability to use a timer for this purpose was no longer available. Furthermore, to reprogram the No.1 ESS for this type of capability (i.e., to provide a call period of less than the lowest presently programmable initial call period of 1 minute) would be overly complicated and expensive.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a call anywhere limited time telephone pay station which could be used with central offices emoloying electronic switching systems.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a call anywhere limited time pay station which could be used with central offices employing electronic switching systems whose lowest initial call period is greater than the call period of the pay station.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a call anywhere limited time pay station having a call period of less than 1 minute and usable with electronic switching systems having a lowest initial call period of 1 minute.